“Papa can you hear me? Papa can you see me? Papa can you hear me in the night?”

Oh, come on, you all know these famous Alan and Marilyn Bergman lyrics, sung with heartbreaking passion by Barbra Streisand in her 1983 film, “Yentl,” now out in a spanking-new DVD set (more on that below).

“Yentl” was Barbra’s first directorial effort, and a labor of love. She had been determined for many years to make the movie of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story and play — and she did!

The play was a simple thing, the story of a young turn-of-the-century Jewish girl who disguises herself as a boy, to further her education in the Talmud. The movie was something else; a big musical, in which only Barbra sang, though her co-star was Broadway’s formidable Mandy Patinkin. (That’s because all the songs were Yentl’s interior thoughts. There was no room at the yeshiva for other people’s interior thoughts.)

I believe Barbra might have tried it as a small, straight film; for all her fabled eye to commercialism, she was not above the edgy and different. But the studio money men said, “We need her to sing!” And, not a woman to do anything by halves – she sang! It was still a risk, even with Barbra crooning at the drop of a yarmulke.

Suspension of disbelief was vital, as Barbra looked like … Barbra, in a short wig. She was not a convincing boy. (Then again, she probably wouldn’t have enjoyed any critic saying, “Miss Streisand looks like she was born to play a man.”)

Eh, but the film was so endearing, so personal, so magnificently photographed, so inspiring – the tagline was “Nothing’s Impossible.” You couldn’t help being swept up and carried away. (I remember seeing it at a movie theater in New York, and half the audience actually stood to applaud at the end, as if it were a Broadway show. Quite a moment.) Incredibly, Streisand was not Oscar-nominated for best director, and this is one of the Academy’s more shameful moments. (Amy Irving, thanks to Barbra’s exquisite care, received her one and only Oscar nod for “Yentl.”) The movie did grab five other Oscar nominations, winning best score, and was a great, big, box-office hit.

The new DVD looks deluxe, bordered in gold, with – natch – a beautiful close-up of Barbra on the cover. This is “The Two-Disc Director’s Extended Edition.” 

Here’s what you get: Two versions of the movie … rehearsal footage … deleted scenes (from the private collection of Miss Streisand) … Barbra’s 8mm concept film with optional narration and a feature-length audio commentary track by Barbra and co-producer Rusty Lemorande. In short, a Barbra cornucopia!

As the star’s fans were quick to note at the time, “You gotta be mental not to love ‘Yentl.’”

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And here’s a vital P.S. to “Yentl.” Barbra, the exacting perfectionist, often made enemies when she worked. Her foes put it down to ego. She felt she was doing her best, and others should, too. In any case, her sets were frequently tense. Not “Yentl.” Barbra was so committed, so energized, so challenged by her task and her material that everybody connected to the project worked with her to the nth degree and without complaint. She never asked an actor or a crew member to do what she herself was not prepared to do, during a long, tough location shoot. This rare simpatico is probably responsible for a good deal of the film’s excellence. In the making of “Yentl,” Barbra polished her professionalism, and revealed her vulnerability – the latter quality she usually saves for intimates.